DescriptionEffie and Frederick Leland Rhodes with their dogs, Dart and Scottie, outside of their home at 17 Birch Lane in Short Hills. Author, electrical engineer and composer Frederick Leland Rhodes, was born in Boston on Oct. 25, 1870 -- He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked on the transcontinental telephone line which enabled telephone service across the United States. Rhodes also wrote 2 books: The beginnings of telephony, 1929 and John J. Carty, an appreciation, 1932. He died in Short Hills, New Jersey